James Clear is famous for the quote, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
I think this is a very important idea for a homeschooling family to take into consideration. I do believe that we set goals for our homeschooling year, a particular student and even for subjects studied. However, if we do not have systems built around those, we will too easily fall off course.
A goal is something you are reaching towards. Perhaps you want to finish the math book, or read a certain number of books. When you are home schooling you need to know where you are going. Goals are an important part of planning. However, what happens when the student isn’t grasping the subject on the “schedule”, or there is an unexpected illness, or crisis in the family. As James Clear says, we will “…fall to the level of your systems.”
A system is an order of our day, that helps us meet our goals. For instance, if one my goals is for my student to finish the math book, I will have a system for working on math every day. If I want my student to be familiar with artists of the impressionistic era, I may have a system of displaying and discussing art work from that era during a week of school. The system means that at a certain time every day we have a habit of math. At a certain time every week, we discuss the art and artists. There are different levels of intensity to the system depending on the goal.
Core subjects like math, reading and writing will likely be a daily habit for students. Other subjects could be every other day, once a week or as often as you deem necessary to meet the goal. The system for these intensities is essentially building a habit in your educational day that ensures a consistency of work towards the goal set. Even if you miss the goal, but consistently maintained your systems, you will have made progress in the direction you were heading.
One year, I wanted my daughter to finish her math book. However, she struggled with learning how to count and work with money. We had a consistent system of doing math every day at a certain time. I did not change the system, but I did have to change what we worked on during that math time. Two or three times a week, we set aside the math book and used a workbook I bought that focused on money concepts using fast food menus. On those days of the week, we spent the time practicing “paying” for menu items and making change. We counted money over and over and made change in all different combinations. My daughter did not finish the math book however, she learned a lot of math and was much more confident in her money skills at the end of the year. I may have missed the initial goal, but our system moved us forward in math.
There have been occasions, when an illness made me unavailable to be the most effective teacher. Since our systems, or habits of the day, were ingrained, the kids could move forward on the core subjects. If it was 9:00am, they knew to do the next math lesson. It was what Pam Barnhill calls, a minimum viable day. There was a system in place that held.
Another issue that occasionally presents itself is a student who moves faster than you anticipated. Perhaps you had a certain book list to be covered in the school year and your student got so excited about reading that they finished the list in far less time than you predicted. If you had a goal, you could say the goal was met and that reading time falls off the schedule. However, if you have a system, you can be excited that they were enthusiastic about learning and just keep giving them more books to read during that time slot. If we only have a goal and not a system, we may thwart a student who could possibly exceed the goal.
Set goals for your homeschool – mighty and exciting goals that you and your students are looking forward to accomplishing. However, don’t forget to establish systems that you can fall on and ensure you are moving in the right trajectory.
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